Oubliette
by LongLostLover
Summary: Written for SpookyOQ Week. Regina finds herself in a very dark place after death. She’d have to face her greatest fears and trials there. But might her soulmate also be in this horrid place of no hope? What awaits Regina in the darkness? An OutlawQueen story with plenty of angst and hopefully scary.
1. The Mask

_Sorry, guys, you'll have to forgive me my mistakes as I don't have a beta to proofread my story. Written for SpookyOQ Week. Thank you for reading and reviewing! Hope you enjoy!_

The Mask.

She's dead. She's not sure how or when exactly this happened, she just knows, and the feeling of unbearable cold and numbness keep spreading all over her body. Regina wants to know where she is but she's surrounded by complete darkness.

"Is anyone here?"

She tries, but the only reply is the echo of her own voice, yet it sounds more distant and weak.

"Can anyone hear me?"

There's nothing but the echo again only it sounds deeper and lower somehow, more sinister. But Regina is not scared, she isn't that easily spooked. The thing she is afraid of though is that she would have to stay here alone for the rest of eternity. Now that would be real hell. She feels her heart skip a beat. Or is it her heart? How does one even explain feelings after you have already died? But who cares how or what she feels, she's here all by herself after all. She just guesses she has to bear that all-consuming loneliness in the afterlife as well and it's complete torture. She feels even more numb than she did just a few minutes before like she was turning into a statue of herself. All of that is just really confusing. She's not sure whether she should move or just stay here where she is. Maybe it would have been easier to just let this darkness swallow her whole. Wouldn't she make it everyone a favor if she just disappeared without any chance of ever coming back? Regina entertains this thought for a little while but the more she thinks about it the less she likes it. There were too many people in her life who had sacrificed a lot to not let the darkness consume her whole. She thinks of her friends who are like family to her right now, her sweet son Henry who has always inspired her to fight against any darkness both within her and around her, and Robin... She thinks about Robin, her soulmate, her touchstone who gave up his very own life and his soul for her in a blink of an eye. If she gave up now, his sacrifice would have been in vain.

"You can't have me!" she yells into the nothingness, "I won't let you win!"

She feels so helpless. She doesn't know what to do really it's not like there's a real physical opponent she can confront. But than she hears it. A low hissing voice barely above a whisper right beside her.

"Everyone loses, dearie."

And she's quite sure it isn't Rumple. It can't be him! But this voice get to her, gets under her skin.

"Its a no win kind of situation, Regina."

She hears the voice continue. She has to listen very carefully in order to make out what he's saying at all.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

She's not afraid, she won't let herself be frightened.

"Does it really matter where you are? Or who I am?"

Now the sound comes from the opposite her and it seems to be right by her left year.

"Show yourself!"

She masters all her courage and just yells at that someone. She won't give in. There's quite a bit of a Queen still in her and she'd be damned if she doesn't let it show.

There's a small flicker of very dim light. It's not any real light just a very poor substitute. It's still pretty dark but now when she turns her hear left the only thing she can do is gasp. The man beside her is darkness itself save for a white mask he's wearing.

"Who or what are you?" She all but whispers.

The creature in the white mask starts floating in the air, then crawling on the ground constantly changing its mask expression as it continues its horrid hissing.

"Let's say I'm the one that some are afraid of more than anything, some rather welcome my coming and then there are those like you, Regina. We've always had a complicated relationship, didn't we?"

Flashes of memories of times she was more than willing to take her own life appear before her eyes.

"Are you..?"

"Yes, Regina. You called me so many times yet every time I came you hated me. I came for your father like you wanted it to be. I came later on after your mother who you hated all your life but you were hurt by her passing and then there was your Robin. He welcomed me in your place but instead of being happy and satisfied, you were torn on the inside."

The creature stops and makes a deep sigh.

"You see, I was never to make any decisions. I'm merely a guide."

"What is this place?"

"This is the land of the dead undead, the place of no return."

The creature explains, his mask changes into the shape of death.

"Welcome."


	2. Trapped

CHAPTER 2: Trapped.

He feels trapped. It's that constant twilight that makes you loose any track of time whatsoever and loose your mind too. Robin's not sure how long he's been here. He's delirious with the constant flow of events from his past, something that can drive anyone insane. It's almost as if he was down with a fever and hallucinating but Robin is not sick. These flashes of memories prevent him from any action he is so desperate to take. He wants and needs to go back to his son, to Regina but memories distract him to the point when he's not sure if any of them are or were real. He sees himself as a young child living with a cruel father and very timid but very caring mom. He sees himself learning to ride a horse for the first time. Than come flashes of his life in the woods, his men and their friendly banter around the fire with some ale. Then comes a splitting headache and he can't remember anything. His mind goes blank all of a sudden.

"I was hoping you'd stop trying to fight it by now."

Oh, and here's this hissing voice again mocking him. Is the voice even real or is it just a part of the madness he's been going though? To be honest, Robin is not completely sure.

"It's useless, you know."

The voice is all around him all at once like the wind. Robin wants to fight it but he sees flashes of his new born son and Marian so tired yet so happy and then they are gone like they've never existed.

"Are you stealing my memories?" is all Robin can master as his brain is hazed and everything around is a constant blur.

"Stealing?" the voice says in mock offense. " Out two of us you are a thief not I. These memories are not your possessions neither are they mine. They are being erased and you've got only yourself to blame. You see, the harder you try to remember something the more of these memories disappear forever."

"I need to get back to my son!"

Now Robin starts to see a dark figure right next to him, but this figure is so vague like a ghost or a spirit, a bodiless being with no face.

"Where is Regina? Is she safe?"

Robin tries to fight any memories of her from coming. He can't bare even thinking of loosing any memory of her or with her let alone see that happen for real.

"What about her?" The voice grows more indifferent and more solemn. "She will forget everything, she will move on."

"That's good. I want her to move on, I just want her to be happy."

"Well, is there really another option for her? She will make herself do it for Henry, for everyone else. But will it make her happy?"

"Have I been obliterated? Or am I being obliterated now?"

The creature twines Robin preventing any movement and suffocating him.

"In a way," he says while torturously slowly unwrapping himself from around Robin, "Your soul has never been obliterated. It's too precious. Souls have always been hard to come by, but a soul of a soulmate who has sacrificed his life for a loved one is one of the rarest things. However, everything you are or ever been is being erased completely. So yes, in a way you are being obliterated. Your inner self is."

This is all very shocking for Robin yet there's this small glimpse of hope. If he hasn't been obliterated than perhaps it can be undone, perhaps he can find a way.


	3. Bats

**Bats.**

Robin regains consciousness with a start. It has happened a few times before. It's not at all like sleeping as he doesn't see any dreams whatsoever, it's just complete darkness surrounding him. It's more like fainting and waking up realizing that you've lost some time but you're not sure how much. How long did he have the blackout for? An hour? A day? A month? Could be any amount of time because he definitely doesn't know. But what he does know is that while he's out like that the memories stop to torment him and thus he can still preserve at least some of them.

Robin thinks that it's both a bit scary and a bit soothing to be completely erased from existence. It's a scary thought to lose everything once and for all. But hasn't that already happened? Hasn't he already lost everything and everyone he loved most? He has. This incomprehensible loss is weighing down on him like a heavy burden so it is rather soothing to know that when he's gone for good there will be no torture. He won't struggle every second of the day trying to fight the memories floating through his mind, memories which he's so desperate to relive in order to gain some sanity.

"Regina!"

He shouts her name as loud as he can like a promise, something that would seal his determination to keep fighting. He won't give up as long as he exists. He owes it to her and to their children.

xxx

Regina is tired, unbearably so. She's been trying to move, to find a way out of this madness. But this darkness surrounding her is absolutely nothing like the darkness she has ever encountered before, it's much thicker, denser almost like liquid and it seems to resist her. The former queen falls to her knees. She's nothing but just Regina here, no titles, no control over anything. She has been through a similar feeling already when she was married to a king. These were some of the darkest years of her life with no hope, no future, no love just endless suffering and humiliation. But at least she had a way out. There was always an option of taking her own life and even that has been stolen from her now. But this time however she can't give up, she won't give up. She stands up to her feet again feeling like the weight of the whole world is on her shoulders. That's when she hears him.

"Regina!"

He is calling out her name. But can it truly be her Robin? The voice is distant but it sounds so much like his. Her heart aches at the thought that it might be him trapped somewhere in this hell of a place. But what if he is here? Her heart does a somersault at that but she shakes this thought off. She must be having hearing hallucinations for her Robin is long gone, obliterated, erased because of her. She didn't deserve it, no one should have sacrificed anything for her, some deeds she had done are horrific and can't be forgiven.

As soon as these words cross her mind she hears the flapping of thousand of wings. She covers herself on instinct and the little monsters spare her face by sheer luck. She's surrounded by bats moving erratically through the thick air biting into her flash, getting caught in her hair and making horrible screeching sounds.

"Now, now, my little ones," Regina hears death speaking to the creatures of the night, "We don't want it to end too soon, do we?"

Regina feels the bats retreat but all the little wounds they've left sting. She can care less really, pain is a friend she knows all too well.

"Shall we bring all the innocent lives you've take to mind, all the horrible crimes you've committed, Regina?"

Death's facial mask changes and he is a young village teenage boy begging the Queen to spare his life. Then it changes again and he is an elderly woman pleading for mercy for her village.

"Stop."

Regina feels tears suffocating her, remorse tearing her apart just like the bats did just not a moment ago. She wishes her tormentor had just let the bats devour her. It would have been long and painful but not as painful as her memories are. Yet there will be no mercy for her it seems. Regina sees deadly white face of Marian right before her. She doesn't want to hear what the woman has to say to her. She squeezes her eye shut and cover her ears but that does nothing to prevent her from hearing Robin's ex-wife's voice.

"A chippy thief. You stole my husband, you stole my son and you stole my future. You deserve eternal suffering for everything you've done to all the people who were cursed to live through your bloody reign!"

She can feel tears streaming down her cheeks despite her eyes being still closed. But when Regina opens them to beg for the woman's forgiveness. She sees nothing but the plain blank white mask. Death hisses and retreats leaving her with her regrets and little winged monsters waiting to sink their teeth into her flesh.

 ** _Author's note: Thank you fit your wonderful reviews of the story. Even something little means a lot and inspires me greatly. Bear with me our soulmates are about to meet in the afterlife!_**


End file.
